Cluster Weapons In Armed Conflict Case Study

1.1 INTRODUCTION
This essay critically examines the current status of the regulation of the use of cluster weapons in armed conflict. It further examines whether the implementation of the existing rules on weapons and rules of precautions in attack provide an adequate regulation of the use of cluster weapons in armed conflict.
This essay concludes
This essay recommends

Throughout history, states have sought for ways to regulate the use of weapons in armed conflicts. In the 1868 St. Petersburg Declaration renouncing the Use, in Time of war, of Explosive Projectiles under 400 Grammes Weight, State parties agreed that ‘the only legitimate aim of war was to weaken military forces of the enemy and that, that aim will be exceeded if arms which uselessly
For instance, Declaration 2 concerning Asphyxiating Gases, The Hague, 1899 which prohibited ‘the use of poison in causing unnecessary suffering as an instrument of warfare’ and also Declaration (IV, 3) concerning Expanding Bullets, The Hague, 1899 which prohibited ‘the use of the Dum-Dum bullet which afflicted unnecessarily cruel wounds’.
Article 2 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 2008 defines cluster munition as “a conventional munition that is designed to disperse or release explosive submunitions”. Explosive submunition is defined as “a conventional munition that in order to perform its task is dispersed or released by a cluster munition and is designed to function by detonating an explosive charge prior to, on or after impact”.
Cluster munitions are weapons that contain smaller submunitions inside of them. Cluster munitions are mostly unguided weapons that disperse submunitions (bomblets or grenades) over wide areas. They are effective in destroying wide range of targets that includes airfields, enemy formations and individual targets. The ability of cluster bombs to disperse submunitions over wide areas and targets make them more dangerous than most dangerous than other forms of attack because the possibility of the death of a civilian even when the desired target is hit increases if a cluster munition is the weapon
Since then, several countries have used cluster munitions during armed conflicts. The United States is alleged to have deployed artillery projectiles and rockets containing submunitions with high failure rates in Iraq in 2003 and the United States also dropped CBU-87 cluster bombs in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2002. The CBU-87 cluster bomb contains bomblets, BLU-97/B. The CBU-87s have antitank and antipersonnel effect. Israel in the 2006 Lebanon conflict deployed the use of cluster munitions by artillery projectile, ground rockets and aircrafts. The types of submunitions used were M42, M46, M77, M85 and BLU-63.

The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research on the Humanitarian Impact of Cluster munitions, in a study of the impact of cluster munitions in South Lebanon and Cambodia concluded that the impact is physical and psychological, affects post conflict relief and recovery adversely, impacts negatively on the economy, demographic and social dynamics.
The effect of cluster munitions is felt even years after hostilities as submunitions that fail to detonate when launched continue to pose a threat to the civilian population. The failure rate is estimated at 5 to 20 percent but it has been claimed that the rate in practice is even